piano solo, is in reality a duet between two lovers.
It is to me finer than Henselt's perfect "Liebeslied," possibly
because the ravishing sweetness of the woman's voice answering the
sombre plea of the man gives it a double claim on the heart. The
setting of "Du bist wie eine Blume," however, hardly does justice
either to Heine's poem, or to Nevin's art. The "Serenade" is an
original bit of work, but the song, "Oh, that We Two were Maying!"
with a voice in the accompaniment making it the duet it should
be,--that song can have no higher praise than this, that it is the
complete, the final musical fulfilment of one of the rarest lyrics in
our language. A striking contrast to the keen white regret of this
song is the setting of a group of "Children's Songs," by Robert Louis
Stevenson. Nevin's child-songs have a peculiar and charming place. He
has not been stingy of either his abundant art or his abundant
humanity in writing them. They include four of Stevenson's, the best
being the captivating "In Winter I get up at Night," and a setting of
Eugene Field's "Little Boy Blue," in which a trumpet figure is used
with delicate pathos.

Nevin's third opus included three exquisite songs of a pastoral
nature, Goethe's rollicking "One Spring Morning" having an immense
sale. Opus 5 contained five songs, of which the ecstatic "'Twas April"
reached the largest popularity. Possibly the smallest sale was enjoyed
by "Herbstgefuehl." Many years have not availed to shake my allegiance
to this song, as one of the noblest songs in the world's music. It is
to me, in all soberness, as great as the greatest of the _Lieder_ of
Schubert, Schumann or Franz. In "Herbstgefuehl" (or "Autumn-mood")
Gerok's superb poem bewails the death of the leaves and the failing of
the year, and cries out in sympathy:

"Such release and dying
Sweet would seem to me!"

Deeper passion and wilder despair could not be crowded into so short a
song, and the whole brief tragedy is wrought with a grandeur and
climax positively epic. It is a flash of sheer genius.

Three piano duets make up opus 6; and other charming works, songs,
piano pieces, and violin solos, kept pouring from a pen whose apparent
ease concealed a vast deal of studious labor, until the lucky 13, the
opus-number of a bundle of "Water Scenes," brought Nevin the greatest
popularity of all, thanks largely to "Narcissus," which has been as
much thrummed and whistled as any topical song.

Of the